Definition of Mandrake

1.n. A low plant (Mandragora officinarum) of the Nightshade family, having a fleshy root, often forked, and supposed to resemble a man. It was therefore supposed to have animal life, and to cry out when pulled up. All parts of the plant are strongly narcotic. It is found in the Mediterranean region.

Definition of Mandrake

2. Noun. (botany) Any plant of the genus ''Mandragora'', certain of which are said to have medicinal properties; the curiously shaped root of these plants has been likened to the shape of a little man, and thus, has attained some mythic significance. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Mandrake

1. a European herb [n -S]

Medical Definition of Mandrake

1.
1. A low plant (Mandragora officinarum) of the Nightshade family, having a fleshy root, often forked, and supposed to resemble a man. It was therefore supposed to have animal life, and to cry out when pulled up. All parts of the plant are strongly narcotic. It is found in the Mediterranean region. "And shrieks like mandrakes, torn out of the earth, That living mortals, hearing them, run mad." (Shak)
The mandrake of Scripture was perhaps the same plant, but proof is wanting.
2. The May apple (Podophyllum peltatum). See May apple under May, and Podophyllum.
Origin: AS. Mandragora, L. Mandragoras, fr. Gr., cf. F. Mandragore.
Source: Websters Dictionary
(01 Mar 1998)

Mandrake Pictures

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Literary usage of Mandrake

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1.A Glossary: Or, Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions to by Robert Nares, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Thomas Wright (1872)"St. Its soporific qualities are noticed under this name as well as the other :
I drank of poppy, and cold mandrake juice, And being asleep, ..."

2.The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal by Stephen Denison Peet (1901)"Notwithstanding the vast literature of the mandrake, curiously few folklore ...
Botanically the plant of the mandrake has been described as follows: ..."

3.Dr. William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible: Comprising Its Antiquities by William Smith (1892)"It is well known that the mandrake is far from odoriferous, the whole plant being,
in European estimation at ail event!, very fetid; on this account Celsius ..."

5.The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge by George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana (1861)"The qualities of the mandrake are aero-narcotic, purgative, and aphrodisiac. ...
is sometimes called mandrake, but is in no way related to the mandrake of ..."

6.The American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge by George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana (1883)"The qualities* of the mandrake are aero-narcotic, purgative, and aphrodisiac.
... The mandrake of the Old Testament (Gen. xxx. and Canticles vii. ..."